Combined piano-bench and music-cabinet.



A. W'ILCKEJ COMBINED PIANO BENCH AND MUSIC CABINET.

' APPLICATION FILED NOV- 1. I913.

1,249,873. Patnted Dec. 11,1917.

I-HiiWUl' m 5/1 I I i A. WILCKE. COMBINED PIANO B'TNCH AND MUSIC CABINET.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 1. I913- 1,249,873. I Patented Dec. 11', 1917.

2 SHEETSSHEET 2.

' III- '5: U EIIIEEIIIIII 2 I 13 E5 .Z. I wdhemeb tilt dill

dill

bill

ADOLPH "WILCZKE, CHICAGO, ILLIN'OBE'.

COMBINED PIANO-BENCH AND MUSIC-CABINET.

ll,2d9,873.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 11, 1917.

Application filed November 1, 1913. aerial No. 798,668.

To all whom it may concern:

lie it known that 1,,Aoonrn WILonn, a citizen of the United States, residing at @hicago, in the county of Cook and State of lllinois, have invented certain new and useful improvements in Combined Piano Benches and Music-Cabinets; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

lily invention relates to piano benches adapted to be used as seats for those play ing either player pianos or ordinary pianos, or organs. One object of my invention is to equip such a bench with storage compartments ior sheet music, player rolls or the hire, which compartments will be normally positioned horizontally so as to be out of sightwhen the bench is in use as a. seat, and which compartments may be tilted into substantially vertical positions so that their contents may readily be examined or removed when the seat of the bench is raised. flnotherobject is to provide means whereby the raising and lowering of the seat will automatically. move the said compartments into their said vertical positions and back into their normal horizontal positions respectively. M

Uther objects are to provide a simple means for latching the mechanism con necting the seat of the bench and the said storage compartments so as to hold the seat in its raised position, thereby preventing possible accidents due to the unexpected dropping of the lid While the user of my appliance is busy at the storage oompartmeats thereof; also for latching the storage compartments in their vertical positions to prevent a. motion thereof while their contents are being manipulated.

Still another object is to provide simple and adjustable means for enabling the seat of the bench tobe used either in a horizontal position, or inone or more different tilted positions, by which latter positions the bench will be adapted for use with player pianos requiring a forcible pedal action.

in the drawings Figure 'l is. a fragmentary elevation. of a piano bench equipped with my invention.

Fi -2 is a fragmentary vertical section through Fig. -1 along the line 522.

Fig. -3 is a plan view of a portion of the latching mechanism of Fig. 2-.

Fig. 1?- is a detail view of the adjustable seat tilting mechanism of the bench.

Fig. 5- is a fragmentary view of a bench equipped with a st rage case for sheet music transversely pivoted therein.

Fig. -6- shows a portion of a bench equipped with a manually tiltable music sto age case.

Fig. 7- is a plan view of equipped as shown in Fig. --5-.

Fig. --8- is a fragmentary vertical section taken from the left hand end of Fig. -7-.

in carrying out my invention 1 preferably build a bench with substantially rectangle lar frame consisting of longitudinal members 1 and transverse members 2, the said irame members being jointly supported by legs 3. Secured to one of the longitudinal frame members 1 by hinges 4 is a seat 5, which seat when in its normal position (as shown in dotted lines in Fig. --2) serves as a cover for the said horizontally disposed frame. Pivotally mounted Within the said frame upon pivots 6 is a music storage case 7, which case is preferably divided by partitions 8 into a series of compartments, thereby enabling each compartment to house player rolls without permitting so large an amount of free play to the latter as to allow the same to damage each other when the said case is tilted about its pivots. hen the lid 5 of the bench is in its normal horizontal position, the case 7 is lilrewisehorizontally disposed, with one edge thereof resting upon a bottom board 9 extending longitudinaily of thesaid frame adjacent to the open end of the said case 7, wherebyithe said bottom board 9 and the adjacent longitudinal frame. member 1 coact with the lid 5 in housing the open end of the case 7 so as to prevent the entrance of dust into the case.

ll 'henthe lid 5 ismoved about its hinges, it likewise moves thecase 7 about its pivots, being connected tothe said casing by links 10 disposed at opposite ends of the said case and connected to the seat and case respectively, by brackets 11 and pivot screws 12. When the seat is raised to the upward limit of its motion, one side of the casing 7 bears against the inner edge of the said bottom the bench board 9, which latter thereby acts as a stop to limit the motion of the seat about its hinges. To prevent an accidental closing of the lid. when it has thus been raised to afford access to the contents of the case 7, I mount a latch 13 upon the screw 12, the said latch being provided with a recessed tip portion adapted to engage a stop 14: mounted upon the adJacent transverse frame member. The other end of the latch 13 is equipped with a finger piece 15 whereby the latch may be pivotally moved about the screw 12 to raise the said recessed portion out of the engagement with the stop lei into which it normally forced by gravity when the lid has been raised to its substantially vertical open position. As soon as the latch has thus been raised out of its locking position, the lid may readily be tilted back about its hinges into a horizontal, or approximately horizontal, position to enable the said lid to serve as a seat, and while the lid is being thus moved the links 1.0 will tilt the pivoted case 7 back into its normal horizontal position. Then when the lid is again raised, the latch 12 will automatically drop into its locking position to prevent an accidental return of the lid from its raised position. I provide a stop '26 rigid with the transverse frame member and in the path of the latch to hold the latch in horizontal position when the cover is closed down.

When the bench of my invention is to be used with player pianos, it is usually preferable to have the seat tilted at an angle with the horizontal so as to prevent a backward sliding of the. player rhen the latter is exerting a considerable force in working the pumping pedals of the player piano, the preferable angle varying somewhat with the persons doing the playing. I, therefore, preferably equip the bench of my invention withcompound wedges hinged to the respective transverse frame members 2, each of the said compound wedges consisting of a. main wedge 15 secured to the side member 2 by a hinge 16 and an auxiliary wedge member 17 hinged to the said member 15. By interposing one or both of the said wedge portions between each of the side members 2 and the seat 5, shown in Fig. 4, I can readily tilt the said seat to either of two angles, and if the seat is to be used for other purposes, or if the bench is to be used merely in its storage function, the compound wedges may readily be moved about the said hinges 16 so as to depend at the sides of the bench, as shown in Fig. -1.

When the bench of my invention is to be used for housing sheet music, the storage cabinets may be mounted upon pivots 18 disposed transversely of the bench and engaging sockets 1.9 upon the longitudinal frame members 1. Inthis case, the link 10 connecting the bracket 5 upon the lid or seat of the appliance with the pivoted casing need not be connected directly to the said casing, but may operate the latter through the medium of an angle-shaped sliding member 30 slidably carried by a grooved metal member 20 and connected at one end to the link 10, while the other end of the said mem ber 30 has a. slot 21 engaging a pin 22 carried by the said pivoted casing. In this case the portion 26 of the sliding member preferably has a slot engaging the pin carrirul by the link 10, thereby permitting the said link to act freely without requiring too exact a relative positioning of the parts connected thereby.

In either case it will be evident that the movements of the storage cabinet will readily respond to the movement of the lid or seat about its hinges and that the number of storage compartments and their size or shape may be varied widely to meet differ ent tastes and requirements. Thus Figs. 7 and 8 show a storage compartment particularly adapted for use with sheet music, one side 23 thereof being partially cut away to permit ready access to the edge portions of the sheet music for sorting the same while vertically positioned in the said casing. It also shows a storage case not counected by actuating mechanism to the lid, but pivotally mounted near its center of gravity so that it may easily be manually rocked about its said mounting. So also, the shape of the storage cabinets may be varied, considerably and if these are to be used for sheet music, the bottom may be sloped as shown in Fig. 6, thereby facilitating the sorting of the music and enabling the sharper corners to fit closer into the frame of the bench so that the cabinet will be more effectively housed against dust.

While I have shown and described the appliance of my invention as equipped with adjustable intermediary supports for enabling the seat to be used in one of several positions, and with mechanism for automatically causing the motion of the seat to move the storage compartments, and as locked by a latch having a finger piece to facilitate its ready unlatching, I do not wish to be limited to these or other details of the construction herein disclosed, since it will be evident that these might be varied widely without departing from the spirit of my invention. For example, Fig. (3 shows a simplified type of latch 2stpivotally mounted upon the side frame member 1 and engaging a pin 25 upon the adjacent side of a storage case. The said latch 2% is supported by the pin 20 to maintain the pin-engaging end portion of the latch in the path of the pin 25, and said end portion is provided with an inclined edge which the pin 25 is adapted to engage to automatically release the latch, so that the latch will drop into engaging relation to the pin after the latter has passed said inclined edge.

ll claim as my invention 1. lin a piano bench a frame having an opening in the bottom thereof and equipped with a hinged cover, a music containing re reptacle pivotally mounted in said frame and adapted when in upright position to project through said opening, means connecting said receptacle with said cover for causing the same to turn in unison whereby said receptacle is disposed to permit removal and replacement of music when the cover is raised and is horizontally disposed when the cover is lowered: a wall of the opening in the bottom of the bench serving as a stop to limit the pivotal movement of said receptacle in one direction, whereby the opening movement of the cover is limited; and means movable with the cover adapted to automatically engage a rigid part of the bench as the cover is raised for locking the cover in its open position whereby to prevent accidental closure thereof, said last-named means being digitally releasable.

2. In a piano bench having a hinged cover,

a receptacle for music sheets or rolls pivotally mounted therein, connection between the cover and said receptacle for causing them to turn in unison, a stop for limiting the movement of said receptacle as the cover is opened whereby to limit the opening movement of the latter, a stop on the bench frame, and a latch member pivotally engaged with one of the aforesaid movable parts adapted to automatically engage said stop as the cover attains its substantially farthest open position to prevent accidental closure of said cover, and a projection on the bench frame disposed in the path of said latch member for normally maintaining the latter positioned to automatically engage said stop, said latch member being digitally releasable from said stop.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ADOLPH WILCKE.

Witnesses:

Annnn'r Sonnmnn, M. M. Bonn.

l'lepte: 01 this patent may be obtained tor five cent: each, by addressing the "communion: 0! Patents, Washington, D. 0. 

